LINER
NOTES FOR DIANE HILDEBRAND'S EARLY
MORNING BLUES AND GREENS
By
Richie Unterberger
In the
late 1960s, Elektra
Records was rapidly expanding from its folk base into folk-rock,
psychedelia, pop, and combinations thereof all at once. As exciting a
time as it was for the label, almost inevitably, some artists in its
cluster of new signings got somewhat lost in the shuffle. Few of its
albums from the time are as obscure as the sole LP by Diane Hildebrand,
Early Morning Blues and Greens.
A low-key cross between folk-rock, pop, and the emerging
singer-songwriter movement, it made little impact upon its release.
Hildebrand remains most known not for this album, but for the material
she wrote in the same era for the Monkees, who covered the title song
of the LP.
Prior
to
recording the album, Hildebrand had been working as a staff writer at
Screen Gems Music Publishing. Screen Gems supplied much of the material
covered by the Monkees, generating songs from composing teams like
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Another
Brill Building veteran at Screen Gems was Jack Keller, co-writer (with
Howard Greenfield) of Connie Francis's huge 1960 hits
"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own,"
Jimmy Clanton's "Venus in Blue Jeans," and the themes for the
television series Bewitched, Gidget, and Hazel. Keller was involved with the
Monkees virtually from the group's inception, co-producing several
songs on their debut album.
For their follow-up LP More of the Monkees, Keller teamed
up with Hildebrand to write "Your Auntie Grizelda," and the pair also
penned "Early Morning Blues and Greens" for the third Monkees LP,
1967's Headquarters. Outside
of the Monkees' orbit, Hildebrand and Keller were responsible for the
theme to The Flying Nun;
working independently of Keller, Diane contributed lyrics to the
Monkees' collective group composition "Goin' Down," which originated as
a studio jam and (as the B-side of their chart-topping "Daydream
Believer") would become one of their hardest-rocking and best
recordings. Though she was just one of numerous names on Monkees
songwriting credits, such was the group's fame in 1967 and 1968 that
she didn't escape attention from the band's more devoted fans. "Diane
was always getting calls from Monkees fans who wanted to know all about
Peter [Tork] or Micky [Dolenz]," says Colin Cameron, Hildebrand's
boyfriend of the time. "I really learned the value of an unlisted phone
number!"
On bass, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar (as
well as the co-writer of one track), Cameron was also an important
contributor to the Early Blues and
Greens album, which showed a fuller and more serious side of
Hildebrand than the Monkees' interpretations of her compositions had.
Cameron had met Hildebrand while working as a session musician on
Screen Gems demos, and the two were soon living together in the heavily
musician-artist-populated Beechwood Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Early Blues and Greens came
about when Diane got a one-album deal for an LP of her own on Elektra,
to be co-produced by David Anderle (who was producing fellow notable
Elektra singer-songwriters Judy Collins and David Ackles in the same
era) and Russ Miller. Cameron's friendship with Anderle, in fact, led
to work for the musician as a bassist on Collins's "Chelsea Morning"
single and Scott McKenzie's Stained
Glass Morning album.
"The choice of musicians for the sessions was
Diane's," remembers Cameron. "I was doing demo sessions for Screen Gems
writers, Diane among them, as well as other recording projects; my
reputation as a session musician was on the rise; and Diane and I were
a couple at the time, so it seemed logical" for him to play on the LP
as well. Colin was already well acquainted with one of the other
musicians, Tony McCashen (who contributed electric guitar, acoustic
guitar, banjo, bass, and harmonica), as they'd been friends in San
Diego before relocating to Los Angeles. In fact McCashen and another
San Diego buddy, Don Dunn, were also Screen Gems staff writers.
As for the other musicians, adds Cameron, "Tony, me,
Russ [Russell White, piano and harpsichord], Mac [Malcolm Eisensohn,
drums], and a young gangly lead guitarist who later became quite famous
had an eclectic little band known as Mobius which played various venues
in Southern California. The guitarist was Kenny Loggins. We weren't
able to use Kenny on the sessions (I'm not sure why), but Diane invited
the rest of us to take part in the recordings. We were all very
good friends at the time. Later on when Tony and Don got their own
contract to record for Capitol Records, I offered to back them up just
as a sideman so that I could continue to pursue my session man
ambitions. The band, Dunn & McCashen, put out two albums, some of
which I played on, and we were the opening act for Sly & the Family
Stone and the Rascals at various major concerts."
Another sideman of note on Early Morning Blues and Greens was
autoharpist David Dawson from the early country-rock group Hearts &
Flowers, several of whose members Cameron jammed with around this
period. Organist Fred Myrow also handled the horn arrangements (and
arranged and conducted the second album by David Ackles, Subway to the Country, around the
same time). Myrow had been a composer-in-residence under Leonard
Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, but by the late 1960s was
scoring an experimental movie for former UCLA film
student-turned-rock-star Jim Morrison, Highway. Myrow would go on to
discuss a creating a musical with Morrison, with Myrow doing the music
and Morrison the text and lyrics, although those plans were scrapped
after the Doors' singer's death in 1971. Fred subsequently scored
several movies, most famously Phantasm,
before dying in 1999.
While Hildebrand wrote about half of the material on
Early Morning Blues and Greens
on her own, she also continued to work with songwriting partners. The
title track was a reprise of the song she'd composed with Jack Keller
for the Monkees, of course, and Keller was also the co-writer on
another of the LP's tracks, "Come Looking for Me." Jim Horn, who'd
played saxophone on some Monkees records, co-penned "Thumbin'," and Don
Lottermoser got the co-credit for "And It Was Good." The album closer,
"Given Time," was the only songwriting collaboration between Hildebrand
and Cameron.
"We were a couple and I think Diane wanted to
involve me as much as possible in her life and work," reflects Colin.
"It was the only song I ever completed with her. I've written only a
handful of published songs since then, and don't regard myself as a
songwriter. Truthfully, when Diane asked me if I'd like to write with
her she chose a song that was probably 50% complete, and my
contribution was just a few words and notes here and there. We played
our two guitars in the living room of our cottage home in Beechwood
Canyon one afternoon and finished the song pretty much that day. She
was very generous to offer me co-writer credit. I will say this about
her— she wrote from the heart and with a clarity that I don't see in
many other writers to this day." Plus, Cameron adds, "Just like she did
with the musicians, Diane chose the songs that she liked for the
recordings. As far as I know, she had free rein in artistic choices
like this when it came to the album."
Surveying the LP as a whole, Colin muses, "I don't
believe that Diane ever made a conscious attempt to be a part of any
songwriter or musical movement. She was a thoroughly liberated and
independent person who could write songs on assignment for projects
given her, or write just for her own pleasure. I think the album was
more of the personal pleasure sort. I know she admired other
singer/writers like Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, but I never saw her
attempt to emulate their style or sound. The greatest possible weakness
might be that the recordings were not geared to be 'commercial' or fit
a particular radio format, and radio programmers probably had a
difficult time deciding where it fit in (if at all). The great strength
was, as I mentioned, the honesty and purity of her songs, and also of
her voice and the band's performance."
Early Morning
Blues and Greens, however, did not find a wide audience, perhaps
because it was neither too "underground" nor too pop. It wasn't heavily
promoted by either the label or the artist, either. "Our collaboration
with several friends resulted in a pleasant 'folkie' record that was
probably bought mostly by family, friends, and Monkees fans,"
summarizes Cameron. "I don't believe much was done to promote her
album. Actually, Elektra had a pretty big roster at the time—many of
their artists were commercial successes and probably got the big push
from the company, but there were other lesser-knowns whose records were
mostly relegated to low visibility catalog and word-of-mouth promotion.
Diane didn't seem to have aspirations to do concerts or clubs, at least
not in the time I knew her. As time has proven, maintaining a high
visibility with the public through live performances can sustain and
build a music career."
Cameron went on to tour and record with dozens of
notable artists, his lengthy career including work with Burt Bacharach,
Joan Baez, Cher, Jackie DeShannon, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson,
Charlie Rich, the Righteous Brothers, Tina Turner, and many others (for
more information on his past and present activities, see his website,
www.colincameronbass.com). Hildebrand did not record another LP for
Elektra or anyone else, though she did have a big success with another
Hildebrand-Keller composition, "Easy Come, Easy Go," which was a Top
Ten hit for Bobby Sherman in 1970. "I can't honestly say for sure why
there were no other albums forthcoming," observes Cameron. "Whatever
she's doing now, I would expect her to be involved with the same
warmth, kindness, and concern for others that I saw in the time I knew
her." -- Richie Unterberger
unless otherwise specified.
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